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<title>The Struggles of Living In a Dystopian Future by disasterbi19</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29789292">The Struggles of Living In a Dystopian Future</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasterbi19/pseuds/disasterbi19'>disasterbi19</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Eddsworld - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Married Couple, Matt appears briefly, tord is mentioned</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 03:15:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,552</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29789292</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasterbi19/pseuds/disasterbi19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tom goes missing, Edd worries he won’t come home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Edd/Tom (Eddsworld), Future Edd/Tom (Eddsworld)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Struggles of Living In a Dystopian Future</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Decided to write another TomEdd fanfic, hope it’s good. Sorry if it’s bad.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Edd fluttered his eyes half open. He uttered a quiet “Good morning, Tom.” before letting out a loud yawn. It took a few moments for it to kick in that he didn’t feel the warmth of his partner, and that he’d been embracing thin air this whole time. That’s when his eyes shot up, along with his body from it’s previous position in his bed. This caused his cat Ringo, who had been resting on his shoulder, to jump off as he sat up.</p><p>The artist let out another yawn and stretched out his arms and legs. “He’s probably in the kitchen.” He mumbled under his breath. He stood up and opened his closet. His side being filled with green hoodies, smeg head shirts, beige pants, and a black trench coat. The other side was filled with Tom’s usual attire, since he moved into Edd’s apartment ever since they had gotten married. </p><p>Edd replaced the pajamas he was wearing with his regular clothes and stepped outside his room. He headed towards the kitchen to greet his husband, only to see that it was completely empty. He then checked the living room, which was empty as well. He scratched the top of his head in confusion, it wasn’t normal for Tom to leave without letting him know. He always left a note or a text, both of which were absent.</p><p>After going back to his room to grab his phone from his desk, Edd decided to call Matt. He at least hoped Tom was somewhere he knew was safe. It isn’t exactly the safest to go outside, especially in Tom’s case. The Red Leader wanted him especially. Either for torturing, experimenting on, or both. The thought of his partner getting captured by the Red Leader was… something he didn’t even want to think about. </p><p>After a few moments of ringing, Edd heard Matt’s voice on the other line. “Hello? Do you need something?” The ginger sounded somewhat irritated, but that wasn’t important to him right now so he didn’t acknowledge it.</p><p>“Hey Matt, is Tom with you? He doesn’t normally leave the apartment without telling me or leaving me a notice.” Edd asked, scratching at the back of his neck as he did so.</p><p>“No, I’ve been doing nothing but spending some quality time with myself. I never get enough time to do that, you know. Going outside alone is a pretty stupid idea though, even <em> I </em>wouldn’t be able to handle the Red Army.” Matt explained, speaking rather fast as he did.</p><p>“Uh… you spend most of your time with yourself, Matt.” Edd pointed out. </p><p>“Which still isn’t enough time for someone as <em> beautiful </em>as me!” Matt retorted, sounding offended from Edd’s words.</p><p>“<em> Right… </em>well, you do that. Bye Matt.” Edd hung up, then he let out a large sigh after the fact. If Tom wasn’t with Matt, he had no idea where he could’ve gone. He thought about looking for his husband, but he knew there was a chance of running into the Red Army and being caught. Plus, he had no idea where to look. They only ever left the apartment anymore to gather food, which they had already done the day before. He knew going out wouldn’t do much better than staying inside. Wandering around aimlessly would be like asking to get killed or captured by soldiers.</p><p>“I guess I can shoot him a text.” Edd half whispered to himself. He turned on his phone again and opened his messages. He thought about what to say to Tom, which didn’t take long for him to figure out. Then he began to type away on his keyboard. </p><p>
  <em> “Hey Tom, I noticed you were gone. What exactly are you up to? I hope you’re safe, just let me know if you’re in danger. I’ll be right there.” </em>
</p><p>About an hour later, after Edd had gotten some breakfast, he hadn’t gotten a reply from Tom. Under normal circumstances he wouldn’t worry, but considering the dystopia they now live in communication is very important. It was very out of character for Tom or even Matt to leave without saying when and where they’re heading off to. <em> ‘Tom isn’t stupid. He must’ve done this for a good reason. He must have a plan. He’ll return home eventually, right?’ </em>He tried to convince himself.</p><p>Edd decided to pass some time by drawing, which he still tried to find time to do even with the focus on trying to survive this dystopian hell. He sat down at his desk in his room and opened his sketchbook that had been laying there. It was filled with sketches of him, his friends, his husband, and some of his characters that he created. </p><p>The artist picked up his pencil and attempted to start a sketch of himself shooting at pepsi, which was vent art of sorts. He often drew art of him or someone else destroying pepsi as a way to cope with the fact that it had replaced coca cola everywhere. His lack of coca cola had caused him to go through withdrawal, but Tom being by his side was able to help him somewhat. </p><p>However, Edd was having trouble drawing at the moment. It wasn’t until now that he realized his body had been trembling, he had no idea if it’d been doing this all day, since the call with Matt, since breakfast, or if it only started just now. All he knew was that he couldn’t draw any lines or shapes properly without messing up in this state, so he put his pencil down and decided to give up. There was no way he’d be able to finish a drawing in this state.</p><p>Edd let out a loud groan before standing up from his chair. He headed towards the living room and sat down on his couch. He grabbed the remote that was sitting on one of the couch arms and powered on the television. The first thing to come on was a romance film, which he didn’t want to watch because he knew it would remind him too much of Tom. Plus, romance movies were more so Matt’s thing than his. He flipped through multiple channels, which were airing things like bad reality shows or reruns of crappy sitcoms. He also came across Professor Why, which he only watched when him and his husband wanted to make fun of it. Eventually, Edd came across a channel that was airing The Cats. It was one of his favorite shows, but it made him think of Tom too much so he turned that down as well. </p><p>He eventually came across an old generic B grade action film, which is what he settled on. The audio quality was bad, the acting was horrible, the plot was so cliche that even a child could predict what would happen, and the music was so loud it drowned out the crappy dialogue. But Edd was tired of surfing through different channels, so he didn’t care anymore about finding something actually good to watch. His time with the movie was cut short however when the commercials came on, and the first commercial was unfortunately an ad for bacon flavored pepsi. The brunet felt himself gag at the sight of it, and he frantically tapped the channel changing button on the remote to get away from the horrid sight.</p><p>Edd sighed and decided to just watch the old crappy sitcoms. They were dated, poorly written, and filled to the brim with jokes that made even him groan. At least they could possibly get his mind off of Tom, right? He figured maybe the pain from the unfunny jokes would distract him from the real world for even just a small amount of time.</p><p>Minutes passed, then minutes turned to hours. Tom still wasn’t home and the sun was dangerously close to setting. He hadn’t responded to the text he was sent either. At this point Edd grabbed the remote and decided to power off the television, he couldn’t avoid worrying about his partner anymore. He didn’t have the willpower to even try anymore, he was now exhausted. </p><p>The trembling Edd’s body had been doing was now more apparent than ever. His heart was racing and his chest was hurting from the anxiety he was enduring. It got to the point where he began to hyperventilate, and eventually tears began to form in his eyes.  He tried to hold them back, but the tears quickly began to roll down his cheeks. He hated being too emotional or showing signs of vulnerability, but the seemingly high chance of Tom possibly being missing or dead was too overwhelming for him. </p><p>Ringo seemed to have sensed how her owner was feeling and suddenly jumped on top of his chest. She licked his cheek a few times, earning a few pets from Edd. This caused her to purr in response. The artist gently wrapped his arms around the cat and touched his forehead against the top of her head. He soon began to sob, which caused her to press her head against his in an attempt at comfort.</p><p>Another hour passed, and Edd’s anxiety only got worse. He felt as if he was going to explode. <em> ‘First coca cola is made illegal, then Tom is taken away from me. What’s next? Why is everything I care about being taken away from me?’ </em>He was lost in thought, until his heart skipped a beat when he heard the door jiggle slightly “Oh right, keys.” Came a muffled voice from the outside. The door made a click sound after a moment and it swung open, revealing a figure the artist knew all too well.</p><p>“Tom!” Edd cried out nearly at the top of his lungs. He didn’t care how loud he was being, the only thing that mattered to him right now was the man standing in front of him. He began to stand up, causing Ringo to jump off of him, and dashed towards his husband. He crashed into him as a result and tackled him to the ground. His tears from sadness had now changed to tears of happiness. The pain in his chest was now gone and it was replaced with a warm, euphoric feeling. The warmth of his husband against him was able to start slowly relaxing his tensed up body as well.</p><p>“E-Edd wha-“ Tom stuttered out before being interrupted by Edd crashing his lips against his own. It wasn’t the way he expected to be greeted, but it was certainly welcomed. He wrapped his arms around the taller man’s neck and gently pulled him a little closer, causing their foreheads to touch. Their lips eventually parted so they could breathe, and the shorter man let go of his husband so they could both get up.</p><p>When they both stood up, Edd’s smile twisted into a frown. “Where were you? You had me worried sick. Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? You know it’s dangerous. Why-“ Edd’s questioning was cut off when he saw Tom pick up a mysterious box that was beside him.</p><p>“Here, take this. I hope it can make up for what happened.” Tom said with a hint of guilt coating his words. The digital eyes on his mask indicated a sad look. </p><p>Edd did as he was told and took the box, which he found to be somewhat heavy so he sat down on the floor to open it. He found twelve cans of cola, earning an excited gasp. “Tom! How did you- I- When-“ He stammered before letting out a squeal and rubbing one of the cans against his cheek. He then looked up at Tom, who was scratching at the back of his head. He felt a pang of guilt in his chest, he felt bad for getting upset after realizing the trouble he must’ve gone through just to get cola for him.</p><p>“I thought I woke you up and told you I was leaving this morning, but I guess you forgot.” Tom began, somewhat mumbling his words.</p><p>“Huh? You did? Wait a minute… I think it’s coming back to me.” Edd somewhat recalled the feeling of Tom’s fingers gently grazing through his hair and the faint words of <em> “I’ll be back later.” </em>Then the feeling of a quick kiss being placed on his forehead. After a few moments of processing everything, he clapped his hands against both sides of his head. “Crap! I’m so sorry, I must’ve been so tired that it slipped my mind!” He exclaimed, feeling the pang of guilt in his chest grow stronger.</p><p>Tom took a step closer to Edd. “Don’t be, it’s not your fault.” He tried to comfort the other man by gently petting the top of his head. He explained that he kept in contact with Matt the whole time to make sure he was safe because he wanted to surprise Edd. He’d realized it was Valentine’s Day two weeks ago but had completely forgotten. He spent a while going from shop to shop to find something nice, and he eventually ran into a cola dealer who sold overpriced drinks. He got them through threatening him with my gun, but then it took a while to sneak home. He talked relatively fast, panting as if he had run a marathon after dumping so much information at once. </p><p>After a minute of processing all of that information, Edd stood up and wrapped his arms around Tom’s torso, squeezing him tightly in the process. He rubbed one of his cheeks against his husband’s for a moment before they rested their foreheads together. “Thank you Tom, this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” He whispered before closing the distance between their lips once more.</p><p>“I’m sorry I worried you, my plan seriously backfired.” Tom whispered back between a few kisses. </p><p>“Don’t worry, all that matters is that you’re safe.” </p><p>Their lips met a few more times before they eventually settled on the couch. With Tom sitting down and Edd laying down on his lap. The shorter man began to gently graze his husband’s hair, then he grabbed the remote from the table and powered on the television. The channel was still airing those crappy sitcoms from earlier, earning a snicker from Tom. “I had no idea you were into this crap, Edd.” He joked as he flipped through various channels until finding whatever was airing The Children.</p><p>Edd rolled his eyes in response. “Shut up, there was nothing else on.” He grumbled under his breath. Though his demeanor quickly brightened when Ringo found herself laying down on the artist’s stomach, earning a few pets from her owner. He shifted his gaze up to Tom’s face, still unbelievably thankful that he was safe and sound. It didn’t take long for him to come to a realization, however, causing his body to slightly tense up. <em> ‘Crap, I need to get him a gift soon. I also forgot about Valentine’s Day.’ </em></p><p>But for now, Edd decided to cease stressing about anything and cherish the time he had with Tom. He closed his eyes, relaxed his body, and eased himself into the feeling of his partner’s fingers combing through his locks. He also didn’t forget to sip some cola in the process.</p>
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